1-2. I had been left in Jerusalem when King Nebuchadnezzar took many of the people of Jerusalem and Judah to Babylonia as prisoners, including King Jehoiachin, his mother, his officials, and the metal workers and others in Jerusalem who were skilled in making things. So I wrote a letter to the prophets, the priests, the leaders, and the rest of our people in Babylonia.
10. After Babylonia has been the strongest nation for seventy years, I will be kind and bring you back to Jerusalem, just as I have promised.
11. I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering.
12. You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers.
13. You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you
14. and accept your worship. Then I will gather you from all the nations where I scattered you, and you will return to Jerusalem.
15. You feel secure, because you think I have sent prophets to speak for me in Babylonia.
16-19. But I have been sending prophets to the people of Judah for a long time, and the king from David's family and the people who are left in Jerusalem and Judah still don't obey me. So I, the Lord All-Powerful, will keep attacking them with war and hunger and disease, until they are as useless as rotten figs. I will force them to leave the land, and all nations will be disgusted and shocked at what happens to them. The nations will sneer and make fun of them and use the names “Judah” and “Jerusalem” as curse words.And you have not obeyed me, even though